Trustees Approve 9 Percent Boost In Uconn Tuition

9% Tuition Boost Approved For Uconn

GROTON -- University of Connecticut trustees Friday approved a 9 percent tuition increase for 1992-93, but a national consultant said they should be glad it's not higher.

Arthur Hauptman, a consultant on higher education finances for the American Council on Education, said he was surprised, given Connecticut's budget crisis, that a larger increase was not needed.

"We're expecting most public universities to be raising prices by 10 to 15 percent because of dropping state support," Hauptman said from Washington Thursday. "Tuition acts as a plug between an institution's budget and state funding."

The burden, therefore, falls on students heavily, especially in a recession, Hauptman said.

"It's a fundamental weakness of the system of state higher education that the cost goes up most when people can least afford it," he said.

One student, Alexandra Schuster of Mystic, said she would like to tell UConn officials to "please think again" when raising the price.

"State schools are supposed to be affordable," said Schuster, 20, who just completed two years at UConn's Avery Point campus.

Meeting at the campus to set tuition Friday, UConn's board of trustees unanimously approved the $252 increase for undergraduates despite doubts expressed by some trustees. Tuition will increase for undergraduates from $2,786 this year to $3,038 in 1992-93.

Trustee Charles Stroh of Suffield suggested that UConn administrators not be paid as much, to keep costs down.

"We should ask them, `Would you give up your raises if it means not raising tuition?' " Stroh said. "If they're interested in students as they say they are, this would be a very minor issue."

Other trustees countered that UConn's managers have given up raises in recent years and that they must be paid a reasonable wage if the university is to recruit and hold onto good administrators.

Otherwise, board Chairman Andrew J. Canzonetti of New Britain said, "we'll be pariahs in the marketplace."

Friday's tuition increase, combined with proposed increases in room, board and general fees to be voted on this fall, would result

in a Connecticut resident's paying $8,658 to live on the Storrs campus in 1992-93. That's an increase of $683, or 8.4 percent.

Irving R. Saslow, a trustee from Hamden, said the cost of attending UConn has more than doubled in his eight years on the board. That is not right, he added.

"How are kids going to be able to afford to go to college? You've got to make it a reasonable price to go to the state university," Saslow said.

University President Harry J. Hartley countered that UConn handed out financial aid to 9,600 students this year. The aid ensures that all those truly in need can stay in school, he said.

No one likes to raise tuition, Canzonetti said, but inflation, high expectations for the school and diminishing state support in a tight fiscal time leave the trustees no choice.

"We're miserable about this ... [but] I have no other options. I don't want classrooms to be twice as large next year or for us to have fewer course offerings," he said.

Student trustee Susan Nadolny of Kensington argued for the increase, saying she was convinced it was needed to keep UConn a fine university.

Despite the tuition increase, UConn probably will continue to be in the middle of the pack of public universities in New England, school officials said. Most colleges have not yet set their rates for the 1992-93 year.

Nationally, the average cost of tuition and mandatory fees at four-year public universities is about $2,000 a year, Hauptman said. Larger flagship universities such as the University of Virginia or the University of Michigan average about $3,000 a year, slightly less than UConn. UConn should be close in price to those schools, Hauptman said, because it is striving to become one of the top 20 public universities in the nation.

Hauptman predicted that private universities this year will raise tuition by only 6 percent to 7 percent. In a recession, schools already charging about $20,000 a year must be more sensitive to increasing their tuition, he said.

The trustees also approved a $256.5 million general fund and tuition revenue budget request for 1992-93, 14 percent more than the university expects to receive in 1991-92.